Linux tips

Apr 12, 2023

Mounting a remote NFS directory

Arch Wiki -- NFS
How to Mount an NFS Share in Linux First the client machine needs NFS client package

# Arch
pacman -S nfs-utils
# Ubuntu
apt install nfs-common

Get to know what IP addresses are allowed to use the NFS On the NFS client:

$ showmount -e birch.ttic.edu
Export list for birch.ttic.edu:
/ripl xxx.xxx.xxx.176/28

On the NFS server (birch.ttic.edu):

$ sudo exportfs -v
/ripl         	xxx.xxx.xxx.176/28(rw,wdelay,crossmnt,root_squash,no_subtree_check,sec=sys,rw,secure,root_squash,no_all_squash)

You can also see the same info in /etc/exports.

/28 is the subnet mask that corresponds to 255.255.255.240. (This value is the number of 1s counted from the left; subnet mask cheat sheet) This means there are 15 IP addresses (176 to 191) allowed to access the NFS.

Edit /etc/exports on the server side. Assuming the new client has IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.28,

/ripl xxx.xxx.xxx.176/28(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,crossmnt,fsid=0)
/ripl xxx.xxx.xxx.28(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,crossmnt,fsid=0)

Note that fsid=0 is added to the option list. About fsid then reload the NFS export configuration

$ sudo exportfs -r

You can edit /etc/fstab in the NFS client machine by adding:

birch.ttic.edu:/ripl/data /ripl/data nfs defaults 0 0
birch.ttic.edu:/ripl/user /ripl/user nfs defaults 0 0

Then don't forget to reload the mount

sudo mount -a

Resources

Annoying issues

sudo rejects my correct password!!

# Check if systemd-homed is running
systemctl status systemd-homed
# If not, start it
su root  # Log in as root
systemctl start systemd-homed

In some other occasions, (re?)installing pambase fixes this.

pacman -S pambase

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